News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-24
How to Manage Domestic Money Mat
tiers and Keep the Peace.

We should be particular about money
matters, SAYS q writer in the Queen,
but not penurious. The penny soul
never, it is said, came to twopence.
There is that viii h withholdeth more
than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.
| People are often saving at the wrong
| place, and spoil the ship for a half
| pennyworth of tar. They spare at the
spigot and let all run away at the
bunghole.
The mistress of we'll home
takes u broad and liberal view OF
| things While cutting her coat accord
ing to her cloth, and as much as pos
| sible shielding her husband from the
constant demands for money, which
| few masculine tempers can stand, she
refrains from the wearying petty econo-
| mics which often enough are not worth
the trouble and discomfort they entail.
Ten valuable minutes may be wasted
in lntying a knot to save a piece of
string not worth the sixtieth part of a
farthing, to say nothing of the injury
to nails and temper. Those who are
i'll this way penny wise are very often
pound foolish.
She is the wise wife who can steer
between penuriousness and reckless
ness. It is the fear of the latter, and
especially of extravaganza in reference
to dress, that confirms many men in
bachelorship. 4 society paper tells us
that, at q recent dance given at the
West End, married lady of eztrava-
giant habits impertinently asked a
wealthy old bachelor if he remained
single because he could not afford to
keep a wife. "My innocent young
FRIEND" was the reply, Il could afford
to keep three; but I'm not rich enough
to pay the milliner's bills of one" And
yet domestic economy is a woman's
province, and conscientious wife takes
a pride in learning and practic;ng it.
She does not think that all is gain
which can be got from a husband, for
she knows that the state of his purse
is a matter of equal consequence to
both.
But a wife who does put conscience
into the management of her husbands
money should not be obliged to &C
count to him for the exact manner IN
which she laws out each penny in the
pound. An undue interference on
his part will cause much domestic irri-
tation, and may have o bad in iuence
on social morals. A wife has many
trifing demands ON her purse which
husband need not investi-
gate, and which, if he did, he
would hardly understand. Let him
regulate the maximum of expenditure
by giving to her certain sum of mon
ey. If she be a woman of prudence
if his table be comfortably kept and
lio ho17So1oI1 With n
and regularity-he should leave minute
details to her. No one can feel digni-
fed, free, and happy without the con-
troll of a certain amount of money for
the graces. the elegant adornrnents, and
above all for the charities of life. The
hard-drawn line of simply paying the
bills closes a thousand avenues to gentle
joys and pleasures in woman's daily
life. An arrangement for the mainten-
ance of the household should be ami
cably and justly made between the wife
who possesses an income and the hus-
band who earns one. The greater re-
sponsihility which the law now gives
to a moneyed wife should make her not
less but more careful in her expendi-
ture. But the wives who have no money
of their own are larger class, and
these we advise to strike the iron when
hot, so to speak, by getting their hus-
bands, before the ardor of their honey
moon cools, to give them an annual al
lowance. The little unavoidable de-
mands on husbands purse, to which
wife is so frequently compelled to
have recourse, are very apt to create
pickering and discord, and when once
good-humor is put out of the way it is
not such an easy matter to bring it back
again.